27/12/2008
Today we went to Venice, Italy. Having arrived back from Christmas at Portslade the night before, we got up early, finished packing and headed off to Gatwick Airport. The train journey there from central London was uneventful. We checked in, went through security and headed to the gate.
We were flying Easyjet - for those unfamiliar, Easyjet is a discount airline that keeps costs down by doing things like charging extra for the inflight meal. After a slight delay at the gate, we boarded the bus that took us to the plane. Apparently Easyjet save money by parking the planes a good distance from the Airport, a good strategy which is also effective when running errands on Victoria Avenue in Wanganui.
The plane crew readied the plane for takeoff. The pilot apologised for the delay, the last load of passengers had been particularly messy and cleaning the plane had taken longer than usual. The plane taxied to the runway, I was getting excited - we were on our way to Italy! Then the pilot made another announcement, "Sorry folks, one of the ground crew has just spotted some liquid, probably fuel, dripping out of the right engine onto the runway. We are going to taxi back and get some engineers to check things out."
The journey suddenly got a lot more exciting. I couldn't help but wonder what other cost-cutting measures Easyjet had taken. Hopefully they weren't using the same 'engineer' that repaired our central heating a month ago, then three weeks ago, then two and a half weeks ago. Two ground tests of the engine and a little tinkering which I suspect Macguyver would have been proud of, we were cleared for departure and we finally lifted off.
28/12/2008
The night before we had landed uneventfully at Marco Polo Airport, took a bus to Piazzale Roma and followed the maze of foot streets to our Hotel.
Venice is truly cool. It is like an Indiana Jones film set, or the corridors of Doom or Castle Wolfenstein 3D. The streets wind esoterically, with side alleys to who knows where branching off every 20 metres or so. Every 50 to 100 metres is a canal with a stone arch bridge one must cross. It was around 7pm, well after dusk when we made our first adventure through them. Our way was lit by Dickension street lights mounted on the walls at regular intervals. We were unarmed and luckily did not come across any villains or otherwise on our way to where we were staying. However our guidebook, Top 10 Venice, indicates that there are both ordinary (blue uniformed) and military (black and red uniformed) police, the guidebook doesn't say but I expect the miltary police are extra hard to kill and a worth a lot more points.
The address we had to make our way to was:
Hotel Alex
S. Polo 2606
30125 - Venizia
Venizia, is the city Venice as the locals write it. I have no idea what 30125 is, I would not be surprised if it is the phone number, but I suspect it is a postcode. San Polo is the district, there are 6 is Venice. 2606 is the number of the house in the district. It turns out in Venice that house numbering does not start at 1 for each street. It starts at 1 for each district - apparently if you put your hand on a wall and turn into each side street, courtyard and alleyway as you come across it the numbers go up in a consistent and logical fashion. We found San Polo and by a stroke of luck managed to start at number 48... Actually we had printed out a Google Maps map and managed to find the way to Hotel Alex by ignoring the address altogether.
We awoke and started our day with a continental breakfast, croissants, bread rolls and remarkably strong coffee. We then made our way to the train station and bought tickets to Rome for Wednesday.
We decided to start our touring by taking a boat trip down the Grand Canal to Piazza San Marco. Although tempted, we decided not to take a Gondola. Gondolas are incredibly romantic man powered craft which cost about 80euro per 40 minutes. However Piazza San Marco is at the other end of the canal, so our inevitable insistence that said man get us there as economically as possible would probably have destroyed all romance. Instead we took the Vaporetto, which is the waterbus, that got us there in 30 minutes for just 12euro.
Then we actually did some tourist stuff. San Marco Square is quite beautiful, containing the church San Marco, the Doges Palace and Campanile a ten storey high brick bell tower.
Queues were long already so we decide to wander the steets and look for somewhere to get a coffee. 90 percent of the shops in Venice sell either, blown glass, leather goods, toys, underwear, candy or are 'authentic' restaurants. There is something in every price range, the closer you are to the yellow signed streets, the more expensive, if you wander down an alternate route you are more likely to come across the presumable made in china alternatives.
We visited a nice glass shop. The local Murano glass is chunky and colourful. The trademark is the cut off multicolour extrusions which come in the shape of flowers and similar items. A few of these are added to the cheaper items to add flair, whilst more expensive items are made out of hundreds of these remelted and shaped into forms like bowls. In other shops we saw there were exquisite glass animals and chandeliers.
Having wandered more we found a nice little coffee shop and had a cafe latte. I'm not sure how they do it, but these coffees were consistently brilliant.
We made our way back to San Marco square and go up the Campanile, the bell tower. An elevator takes a constant stream of tourists up and down. The view is spectacular. You can see out to sea, to other islands and of course onto the terracotta roofs below. Surprisingly you cannot see the canals, these are hidden within the 3-5 storey buildings. Even the grand canal which is 50 meters wide is hard to make out, you can see where it probably is from the absence of roofs as it snakes through the city. There are five bells in the tower, each with their own purpose, one is to designate the sentate is in session, another that a hanging is about to take place, one once rang because of something to do with the Doge. Now only one bell rings, every night at midnight.
We descend the elevator and since it is 2pm decide it is time for lunch. We choose a place in the guidebook and make our way through the streets. I was unable to have lasanga so have bolagnaise instead, Steph has Ravioli. We feel very Italian.
After lunch we head back to San Marco, the queue to the church is quite short so try and enter. We are however denied in perfect Italian. Decrypting the tourist hieroglyphics, you know the ones that always have a cross across tourist like activities, decide it is probably because of the large backpack I am carrying. Other hieroglyphics for San Marco are No food, No photography and No togs.
Going back to our 'list of places we must visit', we decide to head to Rialto the market. The trip there takes us past the best shops, including the Ferrari shop where the shop assistants are dressed as racing car drivers, and past a shop selling fur coats for 7000euro. All of a sudden changing career to possum trapping becomes incredibly attractive.
The way to Rialto Market takes us over the Rialto Bridge, which crosses the Grand Canal at it's narrowest point. This is the third bridge that has been in this location over the centuries. One of the earlier bridged was made of wood and collapsed when there was a particularly large crowd on it.
We get to Rialto Market, it is a market for fresh produce. Unfortunately it is only open in the morning. We are able to look at the massive stone market buildings, which are open for the first two floors, but have rooms built on the upper floor. No space is wasted on the tiny islands on Venice.
Our legs are now tired and the hotel is close, so we head back for a sitdown. On our way we cannot resist getting hot chocolates from a pastry shop. These are dispenced from what looks like a vertical slushy machine with a stirrer constantly going round. This stuff must be half chocolate and is not unlike custard. Once in the cup, undisturbed for a few seconds a thick skin develops that needs to be removed to get to the hot liquid below. It is delicious.
29/12/2009
Today we tried to get away from the tourist areas a bit, we:
- Found an old bookstore with a fire escape into a canal
- Managed to pay 25euro for a 15euro lunch (5e for a coke + 4 euro cover charge + 12.5% service)
- Saw Arsenal with frowning lions
- Wondered whether all venetian own gumboots
- Found park containing abandoned buildings with large country name signs on each building - we may have time travelled!
30/12/2009
Today we take the train to Rome. But first we must get to the train station. It's eight o'clock, I can tell because the bells at Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari rings eight times. However a moment later it then rings another 50 times, maybe it's ten to nine?
We pack, have breakfast and then leave Hotel Alex. It has been raining during the night and there there is a big puddle we have to jump over outside the hotel door. We look left, oh shit, the way to the first bridge is flooded. It is high tide and the river must be high from the rain last night. The street Hotel Alex is floating on is Rio Tera. Rio is River, Tera is Land. We figure this street and Secondi Rio Tera nearby are canals that have been turned into streets, a trend which our guidebook tells us is reversing.
Our way is blocked, but it's okay. We are now experts at navigating the streets of Venice (follow the yellow signs, don't bother asking for directions), we will take another route to the Ferrovia (train station). We head to San Polo, noticing several people locals wearing gumboots and a few other tourists wearing plastic bags on their feet. We then leave the square via the direction I have decided is north, however it turns out that the way is flooded.
I am now glad Steph persuaded me to pack an extra pair of shoes. We switch to our trainers, roll up our trousers and head into the waters, it's cooold. We follow the yellow signs, going through flooded areas of various sizes. We come across a couple of squares where water is coming out of the drains, and pass many people in gumboots. We decide that every Ventian probably does own a pair of gumboots, and that Venice is probably where the designer gumboots you can now buy in The Warehouse originate from. As we get closer to the train station the areas of flooding disappear and become areas with big puddles. We stop seeing tourists wearing plastic bags on their feet, but do get a few petrified looks from unprepared tourists that have just arrived for the day.
We arrive at the train station with plenty of time to dry our feet, change shoes and get on our train the EuroStar, where I am writing this blog.
This is a really high-tech train. I just went to the loo, and found a screen (in the corridor, not in the loo) telling me we are cruising at 156km/h at 65m above sea level. Those familiar with the Hitch-hikers Guide will remember Eddy the particularly exuberant ship computer. Eventually someone finds a switch to change it's personality to something less irritating. This train seems to have a similar system for the P.A., and I think a small child has found the personality switch. Every second word is in a different voice, 'This next stop', is perfect BBC English, place names are highly inflective Italian, whilst each of the four digits of the train number are spoken by completely different voices. I'm going to go back to that screen now and see if I can engage the improbability drive.
I realised we never put these up, so it is out of chronological order.
This is us in the tent. We decided to go into Hastings to see the Jack in The Green Festival which we heard was on. It is a rite of Spring/Fertility sort of traditional thing. We got to Hastings, bought emergency gumboots and poncho (Stacey) and new camp mattress (Steph) and found out the Jack in the Green is on Monday. So, now that we were kitted out for the weather we decide to go to Battle, where the Battle of Hastings was fought. We wandered about Battle Abbey and got thoroughly wet. It was still pretty cool though. That is us listening to the audioguide, looking rather wet. 
